Big thanks to @CelticsFR on Twitter for pointing this out to me today.
With four steals in yesterday's game, Kevin Garnett moved into 20th place on the NBA All-Time steals list. That means Kevin Garnett is now in the top 20 in points (18th, 23,823), rebounds (13th, 13,087), blocks (19th, 1,883) and steals (20th, 1,638).
The only other player to do that is Hakeem Olajuwon who is 9th in points (26,946), 11th in rebounds (13,748), 1st in blocks (3,830) and 8th in steals (2,162).
Damn… Dream was pretty good. And so is KG. That's some pretty elite company there.
Back to KG. Here's a look at the milestones on that list he's got coming up.
- Steals: He needs 10 more to catch Charles Barkley for 19th. He needs 28 more to catch Fat Lever for 18th.
- Blocks: He needs 85 more to catch Theo Ratliff for 18th.
- Rebounds: He needs 12 more rebounds to catch Shaquille O'Neal for 12th all time
- Points: He needs 545 to catch Allen Iverson for 17th all time.
The rebounds he could get either tomorrow against Houston if he has a big game, but most likely he'll get it in Philadelphia on Wednesday. He's averaging about a steal per game, which works out to be the Thursday 3/22 game in Milwaukee.
The points will be tough. With 30 games left and averaging just above 15 points per game, KG will likely score about 450 points the rest of the way (all of these are regular season stats). KG needs to average 18.2 ppg the rest of the season to catch Iverson… which is probably not going to happen.
The blocks… well… he may never catch Ratliff. At 1.1 block per game this season, we're looking at 33 more blocks, which means he'll need 52 next year. His lowest career total has been 57, which he did each of the past two seasons. Which means KG would have to come back next year and produce AT LEAST at this level for a full season to get to 18th on the list. Do-able, certainly… but at KG's age, it's certainly possible he won't make it.
Still, and I don't want to make this a eulogy or anything, it's been an amazing career when you look at the variety of numbers Garnett has put up. Just for good measure, he's 52nd on the assists list… with 77 more than Doc Rivers. KG's done a lot over an amazing career.
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